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Lex Transfleet web site case study 
On The Net was very pleased to win the opportunity to develop the Lex Transfleet web site. Transfleet had a very ambitious site in mind with a large, often changing body of content and a complex business structure to explain to potential visitors. It was important that the site cater to existing customers who would be able to access the information they needed quickly as well as catering to new visitors that might not be familiar with Transfleet's departments and ways of doing business. Another key feature was that Transfleet staff must be able to edit all the pages of the site as well as adding news items and maintaining the information to keep it current. 
Brand The Lex Service Group, Transfleet's parent company, has a very strong logo and brand. Transfleet asked On The Net to produce a site style that built on the existing style guidelines while reflecting a mature, professional and reliable business. Of equal importance was ease of navigation. This was a particular challenge due to the wealth of information that comprises the site. We took two approaches to navigation, one for newcomers to Transfleet and one for existing customers that already know what they want. Product Wizard 
For newcomers to Transfleet there is the Product Wizard. Transfleet felt that potential customers might find it confusing trying to figure out what they needed so the Wizard guides the visitor through a series of questions and then suggests an appropriate product. Quick Access For existing customers that already have a good idea of what they're looking for we chose a menu system that reflects the structure of the site. Using this system almost any page on the site is instantly available directly from the home page. The menus are Internet Explorer and Netscape compatible. 
Live Content Live, updated content was an important part of the requirements. Transfleet felt that they wanted to regularly provide news and press releases through the web site. On The Net was keen to encourage this approach as recent and relevant content greatly improves the value of a web site. 
Transfleet staff have the ability to add, edit and delete news items and press releases. In addition articles have an expiry date that prevents them remaining visible longer than they should. Article lists like the one you see here are all produced live out of the database, sorted in date order. There is even the facility to make an article a "headliner", which makes sure that it takes top spot. Site Maintenance One crucial element of the site requirements was that Transfleet staff not only be able to maintain news articles and press releases but also edit the contents of any page on the site. As with most companies, the marketing department would be providing the content for the site so it made sense to make the interface as recognizable as possible and require little or no knowledge of HTML. We settled on using a ColdFusion control called ActiveEdit (supplied by CFDev.com). This control inserts a Microsoft Word-style editor into a web page that produces HTML code. The editor can handle fonts, colours, images and tables and the interface will be very familiar to anyone who has used Word. 
For news and press releases we decided to keep our editing interface consistent except that we also provided an article list interface that allows Transfleet to view all articles, move articles between sections, expire them, delete them and edit them. 
Testimonial On completion of the Transfleet web site On The Net was very pleased to receive the following letter from Alan Stedall (Director, Information Services) regarding the work we'd done.
Dear John
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